A newly published monitoring report on Şanlıurfa, a province in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border, documents a sustained pattern of alleged torture and ill-treatment between January 2024 and December 2025.
The report, titled Torture and Ill-Treatment Monitoring Report – Şanlıurfa (2024–2025), was published in January 2026 by the Şanlıurfa Bar Association, in partnership with the Association for Access to the Right to a Fair Trial (AYHED), within the framework of a European Union-funded human rights capacity-building project. While supported under the EU Human Rights and Democracy Programme (NDICI–Global Europe), the content responsibility lies with the publishing organisations.
Compiled through bar association records, civil society documentation and open-source monitoring, the report points to recurring allegations during police custody, in prisons, in deportation centres, and during public demonstrations.
The authors stress that the findings reflect documented and accessible cases rather than the full extent of violations, citing underreporting linked to fear of reprisals and limited institutional transparency.
A Pattern Concentrated Around Police Custody
One of the clearest findings is the concentration of allegations during arrest and police custody.
Across 2024 and 2025, numerous applications described:
- Physical violence during arrest or transfer
- Prolonged use of tight handcuffing (“reverse handcuffing”)
- Beatings after individuals were already under control
- Verbal humiliation and threats
- Psychological pressure aimed at discouraging complaints
Many complaints state that force continued after the person had ceased resisting. Others describe interventions that allegedly lacked proportionality to the circumstances.
Importantly, these accounts frequently coincide with allegations of procedural violations — including delayed access to a lawyer and incomplete notification of rights. The report notes that restricted or delayed access to defence counsel increases the structural risk of abuse, both by reducing immediate oversight and by undermining later investigation.
Şanlıurfa’s geographic and political context — including proximity to the Syrian border, a high security presence and significant migration flows — is identified as contributing to a policing environment where safeguards require particular vigilance.
Prison Conditions and Structural Risk
Complaints relating to prisons and detention facilities form a second major cluster. Complaints included:
- Overcrowding
- Inadequate ventilation
- Poor hygiene conditions
- Limited or delayed access to medical care
- Insufficient investigation of health complaints
In some cases, detainees alleged delayed hospital referrals and cursory medical examinations. Reports also describe recurring problems with access to hot water, nutrition concerns and limitations on basic needs.
The monitoring findings suggest that these issues are not isolated incidents but structural conditions capable of affecting detainees’ physical and psychological integrity over time.
Forced Transfers and Family Separation
A recurring issue documented in the report concerns involuntary transfers of prisoners to facilities in distant provinces. According to the report, such transfers have had severe consequences for family contact. Long distances and financial hardship have reportedly rendered visits effectively impossible in some cases.
While transfers are legally permitted, the report highlights repeated complaints that they are carried out without sufficient regard to proportionality, necessity or the impact on family life. In some instances, transfers reportedly occurred multiple times.
Deportation Centres and Temporary Accommodation Facilities
The monitoring also extends to the Removal Centre (Geri Gönderme Merkezi) operated under the provincial migration authority, as well as temporary accommodation facilities.
Allegations from these centres include:
- Poor hygiene and overcrowding
- Obstacles to accessing healthcare
- Communication restrictions
- Psychological pressure linked to uncertain administrative status
- Reports of ill-treatment during transfer procedures
Migrants and asylum seekers appear particularly vulnerable, given language barriers and limited access to independent complaint mechanisms.
Deaths in Custody and the Right to Life
The report documents cases linked to the right to life, including deaths in closed institutions. In several files, prior allegations of ill-treatment, medical neglect or inadequate preventive measures preceded deaths. In these cases, serious concerns are raised regarding the independence and effectiveness of investigations.
Common themes include:
- Delays in evidence collection
- Insufficient forensic examination
- Limited transparency towards families
The findings point to risks of procedural shortcomings in fulfilling the state’s obligation to conduct effective investigations under Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Public Assemblies and Use of Force
During peaceful assemblies and demonstrations, monitors recorded allegations of disproportionate police intervention including:
- Physical force used after gatherings had dispersed
- Beatings and tight handcuffing during arrests
- Threats and verbal abuse
In addition, access restrictions imposed on news websites and social media accounts were observed in certain periods. While not amounting in themselves to ill-treatment, such restrictions may reduce public scrutiny and visibility of alleged abuses.
Impunity
One of the report’s most significant findings concerns the handling of complaints of human rights violations. Across numerous cases, investigations were described as:
- Delayed
- Limited in scope
- Concluded with decisions not to prosecute
- Left pending without substantive procedural progress
The frequency of non-prosecution decisions and prolonged inactivity in certain files are identified as increasing the risk of impunity.
The report stresses that ineffective investigations not only fail individual complainants but may weaken the deterrent function of the absolute prohibition of torture under international law.
Victim Profile and Underreporting
The majority of documented complainants are adult men. However, women and children are also represented, albeit in smaller numbers.
The report cautions against interpreting this distribution as indicative of lower victimisation among other groups. Instead, it highlights structural barriers to reporting — including fear of retaliation, lack of information and limited access to independent legal assistance.
A significant proportion of applications reached documentation channels through lawyers and civil society organisations rather than directly from alleged victims or families. This suggests that independent monitoring structures play a critical role in making violations visible.
Taken together, the findings from the Şanlıurfa Bar Association’s monitoring project depict recurring allegations concentrated in contexts of deprivation of liberty and coercive state authority. While the report does not claim to establish definitive causation or comprehensive prevalence, it presents a detailed snapshot of documented complaints over a two-year period — and raises renewed questions about safeguards, accountability and the practical protection of the prohibition of torture in Turkey.
Categories: Torture and Impunity, Turkey Human Rights Blog